I opened my first Etsy shop, CursiveArts, with absolutely no idea what I was doing. I listed a few drawings and waited for a sale. And waited. And waited. My mom bought something…and then I waited some more. Then, I lost my job, and learned a few things. I don’t claim to be an expert, and I certainly am not one of the top sellers on Etsy, but I’ve managed to keep myself afloat enough to be a stay-at-home mom to my kid, while my husband works. I thought I would collect some awesome links here in one place, for those of you that want to sell online (soap or otherwise), and don’t know where to stars. Let’s start with the most important first and foremost.

Photography

The first thing a potential customer looks at when they come to your page is your pictures. If they don’t catch the eye, off they go on to something else. An online customer can’t see, smell or touch your product, so your photography has to convey the beauty of your product. Good lighting and lots of angles are key. Here are a few tutorials and links that may be useful.

Lastly and most importantly, is the ability to edit your photos. I use Photoshop Elements 11, but if you don’t have the money to invest or want to make sure you know what you’re doing before you commit to buying something, GIMP is supposed to be one of the best free photo editing programs on the web.

Product Descriptions

Your photos caught their eye, but now you’ve got to get them to buy. A good product description is key here. Obviously, you want to give them all the details (size, color, scent, etc.) but you also want them to connect to the product. How? Here are a few good articles telling you just that:

Now that we’ve got your product looking good, we need to get customers to your page. Sometimes soon, I will write another post on improving SEO and using social media in conjunction with your online store!